System and method for bill of materials grading

Abstract

A system and method for evaluating a product Bill Of Materials (BOM) against a set of measurable criteria. A Bill Of Materials (BOM) is a hierarchical representation of the product in terms of its constituent parts. The parts can be components or sub-assemblies or commercially available parts. Each “Node” in a BOM hierarchy has certain properties, and each node may also have relationships with other entities.

1 . A method for evaluating a bill of materials, comprising: 
 receiving a bill-of-materials listing including a plurality of items;    receiving a bill-of-materials grading specification;    evaluating each item according to the bill-of-materials grading specification; and    displaying results corresponding to the evaluation.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the grading specification includes a grading schema.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the grading specification includes grading factors.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the grading specification includes grading constraints.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the grading specification includes a grading presentation definition.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the evaluation is performed by comparing the properties of each item against the grading specification.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the bill of materials listing includes relationships between items.  
     
     
         8 . A data processing system having at least a processor and accessible memory, comprising: 
 means for receiving a bill-of-materials listing including a plurality of items;    means for receiving a bill-of-materials grading specification;    means for evaluating each item according to the bill-of-materials grading specification; and    means for displaying results corresponding to the evaluation.    
     
     
         9 . The data processing system of  claim 8 , wherein the grading specification includes a grading schema.  
     
     
         10 . The data processing system of  claim 8 , wherein the grading specification includes grading factors.  
     
     
         11 . The data processing system of  claim 8 , wherein the grading specification includes grading constraints.  
     
     
         12 . The data processing system of  claim 8 , wherein the grading specification includes a grading presentation definition.  
     
     
         13 . The data processing system of  claim 8 , wherein the evaluation is performed by comparing the properties of each item against the grading specification.  
     
     
         14 . The data processing system of  claim 8 , wherein the bill of materials listing includes relationships between items.  
     
     
         15 . A computer program product tangibly embodied in a machine-readable medium, comprising: 
 instructions for receiving a bill-of-materials listing including a plurality of items;    instructions for receiving a bill-of-materials grading specification;    instructions for evaluating each item according to the bill-of-materials grading specification; and    instructions for displaying results corresponding to the evaluation.    
     
     
         16 . The computer program product of  claim 15 , wherein the grading specification includes a grading schema.  
     
     
         17 . The computer program product of  claim 15 , wherein the grading specification includes grading factors.  
     
     
         18 . The computer program product of  claim 15 , wherein the grading specification includes grading constraints.  
     
     
         19 . The computer program product of  claim 15 , wherein the grading specification includes a grading presentation definition.  
     
     
         20 . The computer program product of  claim 15 , wherein the evaluation is performed by comparing the properties of each item against the grading specification.  
     
     
         21 . The computer program product of  claim 15 , wherein the bill of materials listing includes relationships between items.